A considerably stronger than expected first day gives Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” a slight edge in the weekly sales battle.
Based on opening day data, Hits Daily Double now expects “Purpose” to sell 425-450,000 pure US copies during its first week of release. Earlier projections had Bieber’s album selling 340-365,000 in its first week.
In addition to representing Bieber’s biggest opening week ever, the new tally would also give “Purpose” the very narrow edge over One Direction’s “Made In The AM.”
That album is now on track for a 415-440,000 first week sales figure in the US. That, too, marks an upgrade from the initial 375-400,000 forecast. And while it would not set an all-time high for 1D, it would top the 387,000 first-week figure for previous album “FOUR.”
The race is still young, and both acts still have plenty of promotion planned for the coming days. Evidenced by the fact that the current projection ranges (which themselves are still subject to change as the week progresses) overlap, the race can still go in either direction.
As of right now, however, the pure sales race appears to be leaning in the direction of “Purpose.”
— “Purpose” is also the current leader in the total consumption race. With Track Equivalent Albums (10 single sales = 1 unit) and Streaming Equivalent Albums (1500 single streams = 1 unit) added to its pure sales total, Hits expects “Purpose” to generate 475-500,000 first-week consumption units.
1D’s album is on track for 450-475,000 weekly consumption units.
The consumption race informs the Billboard 200.